A country called America - Part 1
미국이란 나라..첫번째 이야기 A Country Called America - Part 1 미국에 왔다...!! 이제 반년이 되어가는데... I'm in America...!! By now, half a year has gone by... 난 참 한국적인 사람이다..전형적인 한국남자란 얘기를 늘 들으며 자라왔다..이번 미국행이 외국이란곳은 처음인만큼 촌놈이기도 하고..그런 놈에 비춰진 미국이란 나라를 잠시 소개해 보려고 한다.. I'm a really Korean-ish Korean person. As I was growing up everybody always told me I'm a typical Korean guy. This trip to America is my first time going to a foreign country so I might be a yokel. But I want to introduce the country called America as this yokel sees it. 미국.. 와보기전엔..마치..막연히..우주공간에 있는 나라인듯 싶었다.. 우스갯소리지만..여기 오기전..여분의 칫솔..여분의 수건.. 이불에..속옷도 적어도 일년치는 사가지고 왔었다... 그러나 여기 와서 가장 처음 느꼇던 점은..사람사는곳은 다 똑같구나...였다..여기도 칫솔이 있었고..수건은 팔았다.. 그리고 실수를 하면 미안하다고 했고..도와주면 고맙다고 했다.. 첫느낌은...똑같은 사람이구나..였다.. America.. Before I came..I just..kind of..felt like it was some country from outer space. It's funny to say, but before I came I bought extra toothbrushes, extra towels, a blanket, even underwear, I brought enough for a year when I came here. But when I got here, the first thing I realized was places where people live are all the same..this place has toothbrushes..they sell towels.. And when people made mistakes, they were sorry. If you gave them help, they were thankful...That was my very first feeling..that these people were the same.. 몇달이 흐르면서...미국인 친구도 생기고....여행도 다니고.... 이런저런 곤란한 일도 겪으면서..두번째 느낌을 받았다.. A few months has gone by and I've made American friends, gone of vacations, been through various hard times.. and I started getting a second kind of feeling.. 기분나쁘게 들리지 않기를 바라면서.. and please don't take this the wrong way.. 살기좋은 나라란 생각을 했다.. 미국은 무슨..다들 총들고 다니고..밤에 돌아다니다간..어느 흑인의 칼에 찔린뒤..지갑을 뺏긴다는..그리고 저기 구석에 마약한 애들이 괜한 시비를 건다는 생각은..틀린것이었다..뉴욕이나 엘에이쯤에선 가능한 일이지만..미국의 거의 모든곳이..시골에 가깝다는 생각을 하면..한편으론 한국보다 안전하다는 생각이 든다.. 특히나..평범한 미국인들은..착하달까..순진하달까..바보같다고나 할까...이놈들은 법을 어기면 죽는줄안다..물론 소수의 젊은 인간들을 제외하고..대부분의 미국인들은..약간 잘못된 법이라 하더라도,,그냥 지키고 산다. I thought this was a good place to live.. If you think that America everybody carries guns, that maybe some black guy is gonna stab you with a knife or take your wallet, and some stoned kids on the corner are gonna try to sell you some useless shit, you're wrong. Yeah, it can happen in places like NY or LA, but most of America is more rural. In some ways, Specifically, most Americans are nice and sincere, so nice it's stupid. They never break the law. Of course a few young people are exceptions. But most Americans, even if a law isn't good, just follow it and live. 그리고 여긴 사회보장제도가 잘되어있다..여러가지로.. 특히..장애인에 대한 대우는 눈물겹다.. 어느 건물을 가도..장애인을 위한 시설은 다 되어있다.. 놀라운건..화장실에 변기를 설치할 공간이 하나밖에 없으면..그건 백프로..(or little bit less) 장애인을 위한 변기다.. 어느 쇼핑몰이나 가게를 가도..장애인을 위한 주차장이 제일 가깝고..아무리 주차공간이 없어도..거긴 절대 침범하지 않는다.. 여긴 시설을 제외하고라도..장애인을 보는 시각이 너무도 자연스럽다.. 누구도 이상하게 보지않고..누구도 부끄러워하지 않는다..(물론 내 느낌이다..사실 백인들속을 어찌 다알겠나..) 장애인들의 사회진출이나 취미생활에 대한 제도가 아주 잘되어있다.. 미국에 와서 처음엔 이렇게 생각했다..여긴 장애인이 참 많은 나라구나.. 몇달뒤 생각이 바뀌었다.. 아마..한국에선..장애인들이 집밖으로 나오기가 어려웠던거라고.. And here the social services are good in a lot of different way. Especially the way that handicapped people are treated. You can go to any building and there are facilities for handicapped people. It's suprising. In the bathrooms if there is only enough space to install one toilet, 100% (or a little bit less) will be handicapped toilets. You can go to any shopping mall and the handicapped parking spaces are the closest. No matter how little parking there is, they never violate this rule. And besides the facilities here, when they look at handicapped people its very natural. Nobody looks at them strangely. And nobody is shy. (Of course this is just my feeling. How can I know what's going on inside of white people's minds?) There are also good organizations for helping handicapped people go out in the world and have hobbies. When I first came to America I thought there were a lot of handicapped people here. But after a few months I realized maybe in Korea it's just hard for handicapped people to go out of their houses. 너무 길다 싶고..반말이라 읽기가 거북한가? 언제든 선택할수 있다.." <- 뒤로 " Is this too long? Is it strange to be reading this in panmal (casual Korean speech style)? You can hit the "back" button anytime. 내가 사는곳이 중소도시쯤 되는데..사실 여러곳을 여행해본결과.. 대부분의 사람들이 아주 여유롭다.. 조금 혹독하게 말해서.. 한국에 있을땐,,, 늘 뭔가에 쫓기듯..(사실 우린 나이에 너무 많은걸 쫓기고 산다..) 그리고 늘 여유가 없이 살았다.. 뭔가를 지금 해야만 하는것 같고..남들 다가는 대학..못가면 좌절하고..시간맞춰 군대가야하고..시간맞춰 졸업도 해야한다.. 물론 결혼도 해야하고 애도 낳아야 한다..늘 바쁘다.. 하지만 여기 인간들은..그런 대부분의 것들로부터 자유로워져 있다.. 물론 이넘들도 좋은대학가면 돈 많이 벌고 성공하는거 안다.. 그러나..지가 싫으면 안간다.. 그건 아마..여기선..굳이 그렇게 악착같이 살지않아도.. 어느 정도의 삶은유지할수 있기 때문이라고 본다.. 한국에서..부잣집아들이 가지는 여유를..여긴 많은 사람들이 가지고 산다.. I live in kind of a small town, but I've been to a lot of places on vacation and most people here have room to breathe. It's a little cruel to say but when I was in Korea there was always something pressuring me. (Really, at our age we have to live with so many things pressuring us). And I was always living without any room to relax. It's like I always have to do something right now. And everybody goes to college. And if I can't go to college it's a big setback. Then the time comes to go off to the army. Then the time comes to graduate. And of course I have to get married and have some kids. Always busy. But here, it seems like people have become free from most of that kind of stuff. Of course, these guys know that if they go to a good college they can earn a lot of money and be successful. 무턱대고 반말이 나가서 죄송합니다..^^ 밤늦게 혼자 골방에서 쓰다보니..다분히 반항기가.. 그리고..전 절대 미국예찬론자가 아닙니다.. 아마 10년 정도는 여기서 살게 되겠지만.. 전 반드시 한국으로 돌아갈겁니다..한국을 너무 사랑해서..란 말은 않겠습니다..단지..제 조국이니까요.. 많은 유학생분들이 이말뜻을..이해해주실거라 생각합니다.. I'm sorry about just writing in panmal. I'm writing this in my room alone late at night missing And I'm not some worshipper of America. Maybe it'll turn out that I live here for 10 years but I'll definitely return to Korea. I'm not saying that I love Korea so much, it's just that it's my home country. I think a lot of students studying abroad understand what I mean. 너무 길다싶어서..일단 줄입니다.. 원래 아주 짧막한 글 한토막올릴생각이었는데..ㅡ.ㅡ;; 다음편엔 미국에 대한 나쁜인상역시 실을 생각입니다.. 물론..님들이 싫으시다면..올라오지 않습니다.. I think this is getting to long. I'll cut it short here. Originally I thought I'd just put up a short little peice. Sometime I'll put up my thoughts on how America is bad. Of course, if you don't like it I won't be putting any more up.